Lucky
by TeaNSympathy
Summary: They said no presents. They didn't count on Tina.


Author note:

Thank you so, so much to everybody who is still reading my stories! I am so appreciative of all your support and all your lovely comments! I can't tell you how much they mean to me! DauntlessMaple, I am working on a longer one – it may take a while but stay tuned! Hope you all enjoy this shameless fluffery. THANK YOU!

**Lucky**

"It didn't occur to you to take the day off today?"

At Tina's curt question, Jill looks up from the document she is working on but only for the briefest moment.

"Why would I do that? I'm going to trial tomorrow with the Warren case and Paul is out with strep throat."

She quickly types out a last sentence and hits "save" before turning to face Tina, who is leaning against the door, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Many people who are getting married in the afternoon would consider that sufficient justification for not coming to work in the morning."

Jill snorts.

"Well, obviously "many people" are not obligated to go up against Kate Littlejohn in – wait, what is that?" She eyes the large object in Tina's arms suspiciously.

Tina plunks the package, wrapped in silver and white paper, onto Jill's messy desk. Whatever is in it thuds heavily as she sets the box down.

"We said no wedding presents!" Jill protests. "It's not a wedding. We're going to meet on the roof in a few hours and Judge Byrne is going to do the thing so we get to file a joint tax return and be on each other's health insurance and then we're all going out for drinks afterward. Not a wedding. No...attendants. No Mendelssohn. No _tulle_. Once was more than enough of that, thank you."

Tina shrugs. "Fine. So if it's not a wedding, that can't be a wedding present. Just a regular present. Which I don't recall you saying anything about. So you may as well go ahead and open it."

Jill knows that logic can't possibly be right, but she can't quite come up with a reason right now. Besides, fighting with Tina is right up there with arguing a case against Kate Littlejohn in terms of unwinnability.

"Go on," Tina prods. "The sooner you do it, the sooner I'll leave and you can get back to work.

Sighing, Jill surrenders to the inevitable and begins to unwrap the package.

"You really shouldn't have!" she says for form's sake as she unties the silver bow and tears off the paper. Lifting the lid off, she removes a layer of tissue and spies something wooden. She lifts the object out and sets it on the desk, staring at it in confusion.

"Is that – a wheel?"

"Yep." Tina smiles smugly. "Special ordered it. I know people."

Jill feels that she is missing something and wonders if this might be a weird anxiety dream. Gently pinching the back of her hand, she determines that it is not. She is awake all right, but something very odd is going on."

"Tina" she says gently, "You do recall that we switched over to the software last year. No one uses the wheel anymore. Besides, we don't need to pick a judge. We're both quite happy with Judge Byrne."

Tina rolls her eyes.

"Of course I know that! It's not for judges, it's to save your marriage."

"I'm going to need a little more to go on than that, Tina."

The older woman rests a hand tenderly on the wheel's wooden surface, gazing down at it fondly.

"When's the last time you and Roger had a disagreement?"

Jill thinks for a minute.

"Last night. He wanted to watch CNN; I wanted to watch a law show." They'd argued for a bit and then decided to compromise by going to bed early. Which had actually worked out rather well, but she wasn't about to share that information with Tina.

"OK. So next time, you take two slips of paper. You write "CNN" on one, "law show" on the other. Spin the wheel, pull out a slip, and that's what goes. Easy as pie."

Jill shakes her head, smiling in admiration.

"That is actually a genius idea. Trust the wheel."

"The wheel knows. It'll save you hours and hours of squabbling."

Looking at Tina's rounded face, Jill is struck by the softness of her expression. It's a look she's only seen once before, in an unguarded moment when Tina was watching Ramon play with one of his dinosaurs.

"Larry and I used it for everything," she says, with an unusual huskiness in her voice. "Where to eat, what to drink, what to listen to, what to do. It's how we decided whether to get a dog or a cat. It's how we named Jason. Before we had the wheel… we wasted time arguing over so many stupid things. All these precious, precious minutes. And I'd give anything to get them back."

She smiles sadly at Jill, a faraway look creeping into her eyes.

"I've known the two of you for a long time. Roger's one of the crankiest I've ever seen, but since the two of you got together it's like he's remembered how to be human again. And you- you're one of the good ones, but you'd gotten a bit of an edge. You've got your glow back. You've learned how to relax again. I see Roger looking at you sometimes and it's the same way Larry used to look at me. And when you look at him…I remember how I used to feel around Larry sometimes, just pure wonder that we could have been lucky enough to find each other. Lucky enough to find this much love. I hope you and Roger have more time together than Larry and I did, but however much it is I don't want you to waste a second of it."

Jill feels the hot tears prickling behind her lids and grabs a tissue from the box on her desk just in time before they spill over.

"Damn it," she sniffles, wiping her eyes. "I swore I was going to make it through today without crying."

Coming around the desk, she wraps Tina in a tight hug.

"Thank you. You're such a good friend. And I hope you find someone someday. You deserve that."

Tina sniffs.

"There's only one Larry. But you never know. There are still a few good men in New York who aren't Yankees fans."

She heads for the door, usual sass fully restored.

"Catch you upstairs in a few hours. Good luck finishing that. Maybe you'll get lucky and win one against Kate Littlejohn tomorrow. That'd be one hell of a non-wedding present."

Jill sinks back into her desk, gazing at the wheel as she unconsciously moves a thumb across the small diamond on her left hand. A sweet warmth pools in her chest. Lucky. She is so lucky. She has a friend like Tina and she will be marrying Roger Gunn in a few hours and today she is the luckiest woman in the world.

With an effort she returns her focus to the computer screen, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she pictures the look on Roger's face when he sees Tina's gift.


End file.
